Tag: crime

Strange disruptions haunt this month’s new eBook fiction from Overdrive. Nightmares come to life in Samanta Schweblin’s Fever Dream. Disturbing images appear on rented videotapes in John Darnielle’s Universal Harvester. And in the Booker-nominated A General Theory of Oblivion, a woman bricks herself into her apartment, where she will stay for the next thirty years.

If you, too, are planning to seal yourself up for awhile, make sure you borrow some eBooks first – starting by signing in here to Wellington City Libraries!

The Lucky One, by Caroline Overington
“For more than 150 years, a grand house known as Alden Castle has stood proudly in the hills above Paso Robles, home to a family weighed down by secrets and debt. When the castle is sold, billionaire developers move in, only to discover one skeleton after another, including a fresh corpse, rotting in the old family cemetery. As three generations of the well-respected Alden-Stowe family come in for scrutiny, detectives will discover a twisted web of rivalries, alliances, deceit and treachery.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Universal Harvester, by John Darnielle
“Jeremy works at the counter of Video Hut in Nevada, Iowa. It’s the 1990s, pre-DVD, and the work is predictable and familiar. But when a local schoolteacher comes in to return her copy of Targets, she has an odd complaint: ‘There’s something on it,’ she says. Curious, Jeremy takes a look. And what he sees on the video is so strange and disturbing that it propels him into a search for the tape’s creator…” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

A General Theory of Oblivion, by José Eduardo Agualusa
“On the eve of Angolan independence, Ludo bricks herself into her apartment, where she will remain for the next thirty years. She lives off vegetables and pigeons, burns her furniture and books to stay alive and keeps herself busy by writing her story on the walls of her home. Then one day she meets Sabalu, a young boy from the street who climbs up to her terrace…” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Just for Christmas, by Scarlett Bailey
“When Alex Munro learns the love of her life is getting married to another girl, all she wants is to be alone. Moving to a Cornish cottage, Alex finds that her new neighbours are determined to involve her in their madcap Christmas festivities. Then she meets her sexy neighbour Ruan – and somehow Alex doesn’t want to be alone this Christmas after all.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Bone Box, by Faye Kellerman
“On a crisp September morning, Rina Decker stumbles upon unearthed human remains. She calls her husband, Peter Decker, a former detective lieutenant with LAPD. Within hours, a woodland is transformed into a crime scene. And when more human remains are found, Decker knows this isn’t just a one-off murder case. Winding his way through a labyrinth of suspects, he races to protect their community from a psychopathic killer on the hunt for a fresh victim.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Perfect Days, by Alison Entrekin
“Teo meets Clarice at a party. Teo doesn’t really like people, but he immediately realises that he and Clarice are meant to be together. And if Clarice doesn’t accept that? Well, they just need to spend some time together. And yes, he has taken her prisoner and yes, he is lying to her mother, but it’s all for her own good. She’ll understand. She’ll fall in love. She’ll settle down and be his loving wife. Won’t she?” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Bright Air Black, by David Vann
“It is 13th century B.C. and aboard the ship Argo, Jason and the Argonauts make their return journey across the Black Sea in possession of the Golden Fleece. David Vann, in brilliant poetic prose, tells their story through the eyes of Medea, a woman often cast as sorceress and monster – and one of Greek mythology’s most fascinating figures.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

The Scent of You, by Maggie Alderson
“Polly’s life is great. Her children are away at uni, her mother is happily settled in a retirement village and her perfume blog is taking off. Then her husband announces he needs some space and promptly vanishes. As Polly grapples with her bewildering situation, she clings to a few new friends to keep her going. And while she distracts herself with the heady world of perfume, she knows she can’t keep reality at bay forever…” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

The Emperor of Lies, by Steve Sem-Sandberg
“In February 1940, the Nazis established what would become the second largest Jewish ghetto in the Polish city of Lódz. Its chosen leader: Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, a sixty-three-year-old Jewish orphanage director. The Emperor of Lies chronicles the tale of Rumkowski’s monarchical rule. Was he a ruthless opportunist, or a pragmatic strategist who managed to save Jewish lives?” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Fever Dream, by Samanta Schweblin
“A young woman named Amanda lies dying in a rural hospital clinic. A boy named David sits beside her. She’s not his mother. He’s not her child. Together, they tell a haunting story of broken souls, toxins and the power and desperation of family. Fever Dream is a nightmare come to life, a ghost story for the real world, a love story and a cautionary tale.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Do you ever wonder about your neighbours? Sure, they look normal, but everyone’s got a secret or two. Several of this month’s new releases on Overdrive address this very question, including Marina Lewycka‘s latest novel, The Lubetkin Legacy. Add in great new crime fiction set in Belfast and Detroit, and you’ll have enough mystery to keep the whole street guessing!

The Lubetkin Legacy, by Marina Lewycka
“North London in the twenty-first century: a place where a son will adopt an old lady to impersonate his departed mother, rather than lose the council flat. A time of golden job opportunities, though you might have to dress up as a coffee bean or work as an intern at an undertaker. A place rich in language – whether it’s Romanian, Russian or buxom housing officers talking managementese. Marina Lewycka is back in this hilarious, farcical, tender novel of modern issues and manners.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Telex from Cuba, by Rachel Kushner
“Fidel and Raúl Castro are in the hills, descending only to burn sugarcane plantations and recruit rebels. Rachel K. is in Havana’s Cabaret Tokio, entangled with a French agitator trying to escape his shameful past. Everly and K.C. are growing up in the dying days of a crumbling American colony, about to discover the cruelty and violence that have created their childhood idyll.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly, by Adrian McKinty
“Belfast 1988: a man has been shot in the back with an arrow. It ain’t Injuns and it isn’t Robin Hood. But uncovering exactly who has done it will take Detective Inspector Sean Duffy down his most dangerous road yet, a road that leads to a lonely clearing on the high bog where three masked gunmen will force Duffy to dig his own grave.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer
“Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan and collector of butterflies. When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks, Oskar sets out to solve the mystery of a key he discovers in his father’s closet. It is a search that will lead him through New York, history and himself towards some kind of peace.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

The Flea Palace, by Elif Shafak
“Bonbon Palace was once a stately apartment block in Istanbul. Now it is a dilapidated home to ten wildly different individuals. There’s a womanising, hard-drinking academic with a penchant for philosophy; a ‘clean freak’ and her lice-ridden daughter; a lapsed Jew in search of true love; and a charmingly naïve mistress. When the garbage at Bonbon Palace is stolen, a mysterious sequence of events unfolds that result in a soul-searching quest for truth.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

My Sister’s Bones, by Nuala Ellwood
“Kate Rafter is a high-flying war reporter. She’s the strong one. The one who escaped Herne Bay and their father. Her sister Sally didn’t. Instead, she drinks. But when their mother dies, Kate is forced to return to the old family home. And on her first night she is woken by a terrifying scream. What secret has Kate stumbled upon? And is she strong enough to uncover the truth . . . and make it out alive?” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Mackenzie’s Mountain, by Linda Howard
“Mary Elizabeth Potter is a self-appointed spinster with no illusions about love. When she meets Wolf Mackenzie, a man with a chip on his shoulder the size of Wyoming, she sets out to convince the whole town he’s a man worth loving. But Wolf’s not sure he’s ready for the taming of Wolf Mackenzie.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Fear, by Dirk Kurbjuweit
“Randolph insists he had a normal childhood, though his father kept thirty loaded guns in the house. Now he has an attractive, intelligent wife and two children, enjoys modest success and has just moved into a beautiful flat in a respectable part of Berlin. Life seems perfect—until his wife, Rebecca, meets the man living in the basement below. Their downstairs neighbour is friendly at first, but soon he starts to frighten them—and when Randolph fails to act, the situation quickly spins out of control.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

August Snow, by Stephen Mack Jones
“Tough, smart, and struggling to stay afloat, former detective August Snow is the embodiment of Detroit. It’s not long before he’s summoned to the home of business magnate Eleanore Paget, who wants August to investigate the increasingly unusual happenings at her private wealth management bank. August declines, and a day later, Paget is dead. What begins as an inquiry into Paget’s death soon drags August into a rat’s nest of Detroit’s most dangerous criminals.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton
“Cry the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its contemporaneity, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry the Beloved Country is a work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green, by Joshua Braff
“Jacob Green doesn’t mean to disappoint his family, but he can’t help thinking the most unthinkable (and very funny) thoughts. If only he could confront his overbearing father and tell him he doesn’t want to sing in synagogue, attend est classes or write the perfect thank-you note. But, of course, he can’t. That would be unthinkable.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Forty Rooms, by Olga Grushin“A modern woman will inhabit forty rooms in her lifetime. They form her biography, from childhood to death. For our protagonist, the first rooms she is aware of are those that make up her family’s Moscow apartment. We follow this child as she leaves home to study in America, and discovers sexual happiness and love. But her hunger for adventure will open up more ambiguous rooms, rooms full of ghosts and unknown trade-offs.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

One Hundred Twenty-One Days, by Michèle Audin
“This debut novel by mathematician and Oulipo member Michèle Audin retraces the lives of French mathematicians over several generations through World Wars I and II. The narrative oscillates stylistically from chapter to chapter—at times a novel, fable, historical research or diary—locking and unlocking codes, culminating in a captivating, original reading experience.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

The Dying Trade, by Peter Corris
“Meet Cliff Hardy. Smoker, drinker, ex-boxer. And private investigator. When the wealthy Bryn Gutteridge hires Hardy to help his sister, it looks as if blackmail is the problem. Until the case becomes more brutal, twisted and shocking than even Hardy could have guessed. Described by The Age as ‘a quintessentially Australian literary icon.'” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Even in Paradise, by Elizabeth Nunez
“Peter Ducksworth, a Trinidadian widower of English ancestry, retires to Barbados. He decides to divide his land among his three daughters while he is alive, his intention not unlike that of King Lear. But Lear made the fatal mistake of confusing flattery with love, and so does Ducksworth. Feeling snubbed by his youngest daughter, Ducksworth decides that only after he dies will she receive her portion of the land, setting in motion the very strife he hoped to prevent.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

The Paris Librarian, by Mark Pryor
“Hugo Marston’s friend Paul Rogers dies unexpectedly in a locked room at the American Library in Paris. The police conclude that Rogers died of natural causes, but Hugo is certain mischief is afoot. As Hugo delves into the library’s stacks, he begins to hear rumours about a famous actress, a recently donated collection and a dagger. But to uncover the truth, he must return to the scene of a decades-old crime.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Some Women, by Emily Liebert
“Annabel Ford has everything under control, but when her husband announces that he’s leaving, she’s blind-sided. Piper Whitley has done her best to balance it all—raising her daughter Fern by herself while advancing her career. Only now that she’s met the man of her dreams, Fern’s absentee father shows up, throwing everything into a tailspin. Mackenzie Mead has many reasons to count her blessings, but with an imperious mother-in-law and a husband with whom she can no longer connect, something has to give.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

The Bohr Maker, by Linda Nagata
“Nanotechnology saturates the world, but strict laws regulate its use, and death follows for those caught in violation. The threat of death means little though, to a man already condemned to die. Nikko—post human, desperate to escape his fate—steals a forbidden nanomachine. But the theft goes awry and the nanomachine escapes into the wild–igniting a desperate race to contain it before the definition of ‘human’ changes for all time.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
“Heart of Darkness tells the story of Charles Marlow, an English man who journeys into the African jungle. The difference between Conrad’s novella and other classic adventure fictions, like Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, is that Heart of Darkness goes beyond classic motifs to explicitly deal with questions of racism, exploitation and colonization. Readers ultimately understand that the darkness of the title does not only stand for the horrors in the African wilderness, but for the cruelty of the colonizer’s heart.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

In front of you are ten recent additions to the Overdrive eAudiobook collection. Each book is a different path for you to follow, leading to different challenges, rewards and revelations. And once you’ve chosen one, you’ll be forever haunted by the books you didn’t select, the books you left behind. Then again, if you’d rather be on the safe side you could just listen to them all! Sign in (or get the app) to make your choice…

Peaches for Monsieur le Curé, by Joanne Harris
“When Vianne Rocher receives a letter from beyond the grave, she has no choice but to follow the wind that blows her back to Lansquenet, the village in south-west France where, eight years ago, she opened up a chocolate shop. But Vianne is completely unprepared for what she finds there. Women veiled in black, the scent of spices and a minaret. Father Reynaud, Vianne’s erstwhile adversary, is now disgraced and under threat. Could it be that Vianne is the only one who can save him?” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

4 3 2 1, by Paul Auster
“On March 3, 1947, Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the one and only child of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, is born. Ferguson’s life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths. Four identical Fergusons made of the same DNA, four boys who are the same boy, go on to lead four parallel and entirely different lives. Each Ferguson falls under the spell of the magnificent Amy Schneiderman, yet each Amy and each Ferguson have a relationship like no other.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Gunpowder Plot, by Carola Dunn“In the winter of 1924, Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher travels to a school friend’s house to witness the estate’s famous Guy Fawkes celebration. But she gets more than the quiet weekend at the quaint family manse she was hoping for. On the evening of the Guy Fawkes celebration, the Viscount is found dead on the floor of his study, killed by his own hand. Now it’s up to Daisy’s husband Alec – and Daisy herself – to unravel the mystery.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

On the Bone, by Barbara Nadel
“On a buzzing street in the fashionable district of Beyoglu, a young man drops dead. Ümit Kavas’s death was natural but the autopsy betrays a shocking truth: his last meal was human flesh. Under desperate pressure from their superiors, Inspector Cetin Ikmen and his colleague Mehmet Süleyman begin their most obscure investigation yet. Soon they find themselves embroiled in a dark web of underground worlds – but where does the truth lie?” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Seduction in Session, by Shayla Black
“Publishing a tabloid revealing Washington’s most subversive scandals has earned Lara Armstrong the ire of the political scene—and a slew of death threats. So Lara hires bodyguard Connor Sparks, a man as handsome as he is lethal. When the bullets start to fly, Lara is surprised to find herself in Connor’s arms. But as they begin to unravel a mystery that just might bring down the White House, Lara is devastated when she discovers Connor’s true identity…” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

The Animators, by Kayla Rae Whitaker
“In the male-dominated field of animation, Mel Vaught and Sharon Kisses are a dynamic duo, the friction of their differences driving them. Now, after a decade of striving, the two are finally celebrating the release of their first full-length feature. But with their success comes doubt and destruction, and cracks in their relationship threaten the delicate balance of their partnership.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

This Is How It Always Is, by Laurie Frankel
“When Rosie and Penn and their four boys welcome the newest member of their family, no one is surprised it’s another baby boy. At least their large, loving, chaotic family knows what to expect. But Claude is not like his brothers. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. Rosie and Penn aren’t panicked at first. Kids go through phases, after all, and make-believe is fun. But soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Forever, Interrupted, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
“On a rainy New Year’s Day, Elsie Porter heads out to pick up a pizza for one. She isn’t expecting to see anyone else in the shop, much less the adorable and charming Ben Ross. Their chemistry is instant. Within weeks, the two are head over heels in love. By May, they’ve eloped. Only nine days later, Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed on impact. At the hospital, Elsie must face the mother-in-law she has never met—and who doesn’t even know Elsie exists.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline
“Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes reality by spending his waking hours in the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia. OASIS founder James Halliday has promised that control of the OASIS will go to the person who can solve the riddles he has left scattered throughout his creation. When Wade stumbles onto the key to the first puzzle, he finds himself pitted against thousands of competitors in a desperate race to claim the ultimate prize.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

The Prisoner, by Alex Berenson
“Evidence is mounting that someone high up in the CIA is doing the unthinkable—passing messages to ISIS, alerting them to planned operations. Finding out the mole’s identity without alerting him, however, will be very hard, and to accomplish it, John Wells will have to do something he thought he’d left behind forever. He will have to reassume his former identity as an al Qaeda jihadi, get captured and go undercover. Wells knows it may well be his death sentence. But there is no one else.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description.)

This month’s additions to Overdrive showcase the changing role of the hero. For traditionalists, we have T.H. White’sThe Once and Future King, while those with a taste for grittier protagonists can browse several new detective series, including the award-winning A Rising Man. And if you don’t like heroes at all? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered, too – the events in the Booker-nominated His Bloody Project are described by an entire community. To start a quest of your own, just sign in here.

Birds Without Wings, by Louis de Bernières
“Set against the backdrop of the collapsing Ottoman Empire, Birds Without Wings traces the fortunes of one small community in south-west Anatolia, a town in which Christian and Muslim traditions have co-existed peacefully for centuries – until war is declared and the peaceful fabric of life is threatened with destruction. Epic in sweep, intoxicating in sensual detail, it is an enchanting masterpiece.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description)

Sweetbitter, by Stephanie Danler
“22-year-old Tess has come to New York to take on her destiny. After she stumbles into a coveted job at a renowned restaurant, we spend the year with her as she learns the punishing, privileged life of a backwaiter, on and off duty. She’s pulled into the thrall of two other servers—a handsome bartender she falls hard for, and an older woman whose connection to both young lovers is murky, sensual and overpowering. These two will prove to be Tess’s hardest lesson of all.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description)

The Portable Veblen, by Elizabeth Mckenzie
“A laugh-out-loud love story with big ideas – and squirrels. Can squirrels speak? Do snails scream? Will a young couple, newly engaged, make it to their wedding day? Will their dysfunctional families ruin everything? Will they be undone by the advances of a very sexy, very unscrupulous heiress to a pharmaceuticals corporation? Is getting married even a remotely reasonable idea in the twenty-first century? And what in the world is a ‘Veblen’ anyway?” (Adapted from the Overdrive description)

Dirt Road, by James Kelman
“Murdo, a teenager obsessed with music, dreams of a life beyond his Scottish island home. His dad Tom has recently lost his wife and is terrified of losing control of what remains of his family. Both are in search of something as they set out on an expedition into the American South. As they travel they encounter a new world and we discover whether the hopes of youth can conquer the fears of age.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description)

His Bloody Project, by Graeme Macrae Burnet
“A brutal triple murder in a remote northwestern crofting community in 1869 leads to the arrest of a young man by the name of Roderick Macrae. There’s no question that Macrae is guilty, but the police and courts must uncover what drove him to murder. A story ingeniously recounted through the accused’s memoir, trial transcripts and newspaper reports, His Bloody Project is a riveting literary thriller, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description)

A Rising Man, by Abir Mukherjee
“Captain Sam Wyndham, former Scotland Yard detective, is a new arrival to Calcutta. Desperately seeking a fresh start after his experiences during the Great War, Wyndham has been recruited to head up a new post in the police force. But with barely a moment to acclimatise, he is caught up in a murder investigation that will take him into the dark underbelly of the British Raj. The start of an atmospheric and enticing new historical crime series.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description)

The Last Days of Night, by Graham Moore
“New York, 1888. A young lawyer named Paul Cravath takes a case that seems impossible to win. Paul’s client, George Westinghouse, has been sued by Thomas Edison over a billion-dollar question: Who invented the light bulb and holds the right to power the country? The task facing Cravath is daunting, and the stakes are immense: the winner of the case will illuminate America.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description)

The Once and Future King, by T. H. White
“T.H. White’s masterful retelling of the Arthurian legend is an abiding classic. The Once and Future King contains all five books about the early life of King Arthur (The Sword in the Stone, The Witch in the Wood, The Ill-Made Knight, The Candle in the Wind and The Book of Merlyn). White brings to life the major British epic with brilliance, grandeur, warmth and charm.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description)

Jake’s Long Shadow, by Alan Duff
“The third volume in the hard-hitting, best-selling Once Were Warriors trilogy. The millennium has changed but have the Hekes? Where are they now? Son Abe who has rejected violence but violence finds him; Polly, as beautiful as her sister Grace, who committed suicide; the gang leader, Apeman, who killed Tania, what’s prison like, does it change a man? And then there’s Jake Heke, casting his long shadow over everyone.” (Adapted from the Overdrive description)

New mysteries for February include the latest entry in Alan Bradley’s popular series about 12 year old crime solver Flavia de Luce; the new Alex Delaware novel from Jonathan Kellerman; a continuation of Robert B. Parker’s ‘Spenser’ series by Ace Atkins; David Hewson’s adaptation of the second season of Danish TV crime series ‘The Killing’; & more cozy crime from Leslie Meier & Sharon Fiffer’s…

Speaking from among the bones : a Flavia de Luce novel / Alan Bradley.“Twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is inordinately interested in death and passionate about poisons. When she’s feeling blue, she thinks about cyanide, since its color reflects her mood. She also has a penchant for finding corpses and an extraordinary ability to ferret out the stories behind their untimely deaths. Here she is the first to espy the body of St. Tancred’s Church organist Crispin Collicutt during the excavation of the eponymous saint’s remains to mark his quincentennial, in 1951. Flavia also must deal with a crisis at home when her widowed father is forced to put the family estate, Buckshaw, up for sale. And while uncovering motives, Flavia also unearths a number of local families’ secrets, including some involving her late mother. Bradley’s Flavia cozies, set in the English countryside, have been a hit from the start, and this fifth in the series continues to charm and entertain…” (Adapted from syndetics summary)

Guilt : an Alex Delaware novel / Jonathan Kellerman.“A series of horrifying events occur in quick succession in the same upscale L.A. neighborhood. A backyard renovation unearths an infant’s body, buried sixty years ago. And soon thereafter in a nearby park, another disturbingly bizarre discovery is made not far from the body of a young woman shot in the head. Helping LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis to link these eerie incidents is brilliant psychologist Alex Delaware. But even the good doctor’s vast experience with matters both clinical and criminal might not be enough to cut down to the bone of this chilling case – and draw out the disturbing truth. Backtracking six decades into the past stirs up tales of a beautiful nurse with a mystery lover, a handsome, wealthy doctor who seems too good to be true, and a hospital with a notorious reputation…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Alex Cross, run / James Patterson.“Detective Alex Cross arrests renowned plastic surgeon Elijah Creem for sleeping with teenage girls. Now, his life ruined, Creem is out of jail, and he has made sure that no one will recognize him by giving himself a new face. A young woman is found hanging from a sixth floor window, and Alex is called to the scene. The victim recently gave birth, but the baby is nowhere to be found. Before Alex can begin searching for the missing newborn and killer, he is called to investigate a second crime. All of Washington, D.C. is in a panic, and when a third body is discovered, rumours of three serial killers send the city into an all out frenzy. Alex’s investigations are going nowhere, and he is too focused on the cases to notice that someone has been watching him and will stop at nothing until he is dead…” (Syndetics summary)

Robert B. Parker’s Lullaby / Ace Atkins.“Picked by the Parker estate to continue the late author’s beloved Spenser series, Atkins (White Shadow; Wicked City) must have been well aware that fanatical fans would scrutinize every word to ensure that the new novel would be as good as the original. They won’t be disappointed in certain aspects as Atkins delivers the customary crisp, witty repartee between Spencer and the book’s other colorful characters. An abandoned teenager raising her younger sisters in South Boston’s seedy projects, Mattie Sullivan is convinced the Feds convicted an innocent man for killing her addict mother and coerces Spencer into investigating the cold case. Joined by Hawk, his uncompromising partner, Spenser relentlessly follows clues despite violent threats from Southie thugs. Verdict Atkins avoids the risk of doing anything different with Parker’s characters and maintains the rhythm and cadence of Parker’s pointed prose…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

The killing. II / David Hewson ; based on the Bafta award-winning TV series writen by Soren Sveistrup.“It is two years since the notorious Nanna Birk Larsen case. Two years since Detective Sarah Lund left Copenhagen in disgrace for a remote outpost in northern Denmark. When the body of a female lawyer is found in macabre circumstances in a military graveyard, there are elements of the crime scene that take Head of Homicide, Lennart Brix, back to an occupied wartime Denmark – a time its countrymen would wish to forget. Brix knows that Lund is the one person he can rely on to discover the truth. Reluctantly she returns to Copenhagen and becomes intrigued with the facts surrounding the case. As more bodies are found, Lund comes to see a pattern and she realises that the identity of the killer will be known once the truth behind a more recent wartime mission is finally revealed…” (Description from Amazon.co.uk)

Gun machine / Warren Ellis.“Detective John Tallow is a classic burnout, sleepwalking on the job until the day his supercop partner (and only friend) is killed by a shotgun-wielding lunatic. The incident was Tallow’s first on-the-job shooting, and he doesn’t disagree with the majority view that he shouldn’t have been the cop left standing. Then, when a shrine of ritualistically displayed firearms is found in the apartment building where his partner died, Tallow finds himself wanting answers. Analysis of the cache connects each weapon to a murder, and Tallow is assigned to work with two wildly eccentric geniuses on the crime-scene unit to try to end the killer’s decades-long killing spree. Gun Machine is built around a trio of intoxicating weirdos who twist the mold of the familiar detective-and-forensic-specialist combo. Strong interplay between historic Manahatta (think Native American) and technology’s future role in policing creates a big-picture backdrop for catch-the-crazy-killer thrills…” (Adapted from Syndetics sumamry)

The Golden Calf / Helene Tursten ; translated by Laura A. Wideburg.“The murder of Kjell B:son Ceder, the so-called restaurant king of Goteborg, kicks off Tursten’s complex and compelling fifth Det. Insp. Irene Huss investigation to be published in the U.S. (after 2012’s Night Rounds). Someone shot Ceder in the head twice at point-blank range. Suspicion initially focuses on his much younger wife, Sanna, who stands to inherit Ceder’s fortune, but subsequent events force Huss and her colleagues to reconsider. Two other men are found murdered in the exact same way shortly after the first killing, and all three deaths may have a connection with a three-year-old financial scandal. The press had dubbed one of the other victims, Philip Bergman, as “the Golden Calf” for his facility in attracting business investors. Once again, the doggedly effective Huss proves herself a capable and sympathetic lead in the service of yet another clever plot that effortlessly meshes police procedural and whodunit…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Easter bunny murder / Leslie Meier.“At the start of Meier’s delightful 19th Lucy Stone mystery (after 2012’s Chocolate Covered Murder), the families gathered outside elderly Vivian Van Vorst’s mansion, Pine Point, in rural Tinker’s Cove, Maine, for VV’s annual Easter egg hunt are puzzled to find the gates closed. Then the Easter Bunny emerges from the house, runs clumsily toward the gates, and collapses on the ground. The Easter Bunny-VV’s grandson, Van Vorst Duff-dies on the way to the hospital. VV had always been generous with her wealth, but Lucy, part-time reporter for the local newspaper, learns that she has been reclusive recently and funds may have been tight. Did some envious family member off Duff because he was VV’s heir, or did he die of natural causes? If it’s murder, is money or revenge the motive? Cozy fans will enjoy Lucy’s hunt for the truth…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Lucky stuff.“In Fiffer’s charming if lightweight eighth Jane Wheel mystery (after 2011’s Backstage Stuff), antiques picker Jane decides it’s time for a new life, now that her son has gone to boarding school. After putting her Evanston, Ill., house on the market, Jane sends her treasured curios to her friend, Tim Lowry, for safe storage in her hometown, Kankakee, Ill., and heads there for a brief visit. She finds the town has been turned upside down by comedian Lucky Miller, there with a production crew to film a roast for his comeback. Jane’s mom and dad, who run the EZ Way Inn, are in the thick of all the hoopla. Then, Jane learns that Lucky is looking for much more than a comeback, and a death from peanuts casts a pall over the proceedings. Leave it to sleuth Jane to figure out what’s going on by the time of the climactic bowling tournament…” (Syndetics summary)

Babylon / Camilla Ceder ; translated by Marlaine Delargy.“Inspector Christian Tell and his team are called to the scene of a double murder. University lecturer Anne-Marie Karpov lies dead in her home, alongside her student and lover, Henrik. The crime appears straightforward: Henrik’s girlfriend Rebecca, a woman in therapy for her violent jealousy, had been spotted outside Karpov’s flat, and her fingerprints are found on the door. But shortly afterwards, when Rebecca’s flat is burgled in a seemingly unconnected attack, Tell begins to wonder whether she might be the victim in a larger game. It emerges that items on the Red List – artefacts raided from Iraqi museums – were found among Henrik’s possessions. As the truth behind Anne-Marie and Henrik’s past begins to emerge, the dead woman’s ex-husband, Danish gangsters and Turkish black marketeers all come into the frame. Tell must unravel a web of hidden motives that spans continents, all while trying to salvage his stormy relationship with Seja…” (Description from Amazon.co.uk)

Life and limb / Elsebeth Egholm.“There is no beauty in death, thinks crime journalist Dicte Svendsen. And so it would appear as she arrives at her next murder scene. A young woman has been found in the carpark next to the sports stadium. Dressed in jeans and a pink T-shirt with I love U written on it, in she sits propped up against a car. The words rag doll come to mind as she seems to be held together by skin and hair alone; as if someone had removed the skeleton. Not only that, her eye sockets were empty.This was the work of a very particular killer…” (Sundetics sumamry)

In our selection of the new crime books this month: stolen artworks and the detective story behind their recovery, books that look at the Casey Anthony and Schapelle Corby cases, a new title from Ian Wishart, and a story from inside Venezuela’s notorious Yare prison. Have a browse!

Art theft and the case of the stolen Turners / Sandy Nairne.“In 1994, two paintings by J.M.W. Turner were stolen from a German art gallery while on loan from Tate Britain. Both important paintings by one of Britain’s most famous artists, they were valued at £24 million. Nairne (former director, Tate Britain; current director, National Portrait Gallery, London) was directly involved in the search for the paintings and the negotiations for their ransom and return. With its cast of colorful characters and intrigue, this true-crime story should be riveting…” (Library Journal)

Inside the mind of Casey Anthony : a psychological portrait / Keith Ablow.“The trial of twenty-five year old Casey Anthony for the death of her daughter Caylee was the most sensational case in America since O.J. Simpson’s — with a verdict every bit as stunning. After being acquitted in July 2011, Ms. Anthony instantly became one of the most infamous women in the world. Dr. Keith Ablow distills tens of thousands of pages of documents he has obtained, his behind-the-camera, one-on one interviews, and his decades of experience in the world of forensic psychiatry to make sense of a woman whose defense attorney described as an innocent victim of childhood sexual abuse, but the state insisted was a cold-blooded murderer….” (Publisher’s summary)

Sins of the father : the untold story behind Schapelle Corby’s ill-fated drug run / Eamonn Duff.
“A reckless father, his dark past, an Adelaide drug trafficker and the Gold Coast beauty school dropout who kept her mouth shut. This is the explosive untold story of Schapelle Corby and how she took the rap for her father’s drug syndicate. The result of a three year investigation, Sins of the Father returns to the beginning of Australia’s most famous drug case, to a time when nobody had ever heard the name Schapelle Corby. Finally, the missing pieces of the jigsaw fall into place as we are led, step by step, through the important weeks, days and hours leading up to her dramatic arrest. Shedding new light on her long-held claims of innocence, this is the book Schapelle’s army of supporters do not want you to read.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Banged up abroad : hellhole ; our fight to survive South America’s deadliest jail / James Miles and Paul Loseby.
“When James Miles and his best friend Paul Loseby were caught smuggling ten kilos of cocaine out of Caracas, Venezuela, they couldn’t deny their guilt. Young and naive, the lads had thought the one-off drug mule job would be a passport to a better life. But in reality it was a ticket to hell … They were sentenced to thirty years and flung into the world’s deadliest prison system, ending up in the notorious Yare. A place where drugs and weaponry are currency and the rules are: there are no rules.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Out of calamity : stories of trauma survivors / Roger Rees, preface by Norman Swan.
“All the people in these stories are unsung heroes. Their stories are true. To honour their privacy, most of the individuals profiled bear fictitious names; a few are composite characters. They have suffered severe trauma, the consequences of which have affected every aspect of their lives, as well as those of family and friends. They demonstrate great, if not superhuman, courage and resilience and never seek or expect applause…. ‘Out of Calamity’ stories and portraits are told in language that is realistic but also poetic, and demonstrate heroic dimensions even when people appear overwhelmed. Superbly crafted writing that is often raw but also eloquent, spare and affecting, these stories are gems replete with insight and compassion.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)